In the dying days of the Whitlam Government, metalworker's' stalwart Laurie Carmichael told the ACTU's Bill Kelty that unions had to do better next time to keep Labor in office for longer. The day after Whitlam was sacked, then ACTU president Bob Hawke said to him that Australia needed a new way of making change.
In a significant decision, the Federal Court has found that Visy Packaging took adverse action against an elected safety representative by investigating his attempts to exercise a workplace right by sidelining two defective forklifts, leading to his suspension and a final written warning, just four months after it launched a "Tuff on Safety" campaign.
The Australian Law Reform Commission in its final report on barriers to workforce participation by older workers recommends extending the right to request flexible working arrangements - which the Federal Government is seeking to legislate in its bill to amend the Fair Work Act - and increasing notice entitlements for workers over 45.
An appeal right for employees whose requests for flexible work are denied and restrictions on employer industrial action in the wake of the Qantas dispute are among the amendments the Greens have put on the table ahead of talks with the federal government on the passage of its Fair Work Amendment Bill 2013.
After six tribunal judgments over four years, a reinstated in-house lawyer for a state roads agency has had nine months' pay deducted from her backpay, and will need to re-apply for her former job after a departmental restructure.
The federal government has introduced a bill to close the gap that led to last year's Federal Court finding that two ships engaged in laying gasfield pipelines off the Western Australian coast were not within the Australian migration zone and their overseas employees therefore didn't need 457 visas.
Last month's Warrell v Walton Federal Court judgment has had immediate repercussions for legal representation in the Fair Work Commission, with major law firm Ashurst thrown out of an unfair dismissal case yesterday.
Charges laid over Currawong sale; No coverage, no MSD; NTEU bans releasing exam results; and Company director wins reduced penalty in sham contracting appeal
The importance of employee evidence in an application for approval of an agreement that only marginally passes the BOOT has been demonstrated in a decision by the Fair Work Commission to knock back a fast food deal.
